The Bad

Incredible Charts is a piece of charting software developed by well renowned trader, investor and market commentator Colin Twiggs. It’s main attraction is it’s affordability – the basic version is completely free. The free version contains all the basic features a beginner investor or trader would require from a piece of stock charting software, including all the major chart types and a stock screener

See a comprehensive review below:

Ease Of Use:

Incredible Charts is relatively easy to use, although it will take a little bit of getting used to (as any new software does), especially if you’re a first time user of stock charting software.

Most of the features you will use are located in the button ribbon located at the top of the screen and the icons on each button are pretty self explanatory, making navigation fairly intuitive. The drop down menus are also fairly simple and it’s not too difficult to “follow your nose” to find what you’re looking for.

The user interface is adequate, although it does have a bit of a “windows 95” outdated feel about it. However, it’s far from the worst software I’ve seen in this regard.

Screen shot of the Incredible Charts interface

I did find the help function fairly lacking – clicking the help drop down menu takes you to the Incredible Charts website and you’re left to navigate through a reasonably outdated navigation menu to find what your looking for. I usually find what I’m looking for (after a period of hunting around), but it would have been nice to have an “in software” help function.

One thing I did find a little frustrating was changing between chart time frames. When switching between, say, an hourly and a daily chart I had to manually change all my indicator time frames as they do not automatically change – more an annoyance than anything catastrophic, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

One other gripe I have is that there are a number of bugs with the program, at least when running on my machine. It has a tendency to freeze and require a “cntrl, alt, delete” manual close and restart of the program. This typically happens when using the “save a chart as an image” function, but also happens randomly throughout my usage. The freezing isn’t overly frequent, but it occurs enough to be annoying. It’s not a product killer, but it would be nice to see this problem resolved.

One function which is nice is the scroll watchlist/stock screener function. Lets say you have a watch list of stocks you’re watching for a breakout out, or you’ve just laoded your end of day stock screener – simply clicking the up or down key will scroll through all the stocks on your watchlist or stock screener.

Other than that, whilst Incredible charts is no “Apple” when it comes to usability, I found it fairly easy to use – it was the first piece of stock charting software I ever used, and if I could find my way around it – anyone can.

Features

Incredible Charts has all the basic stock charting software features required by the amateur investor. The stock charting features included in the basic version include:

Ability to easily switch between the three main chart types – candlestick, OHLC and line charts

EquiVolume and point and figurecharts

Fibonacci extensions and retracements

Auto-fit trend lines and channels

On line chart drawing and note making

Full range of common technical indicators (i.e. MACD, RSI, OBV etc).

Comprehensive stock screener

The ability to save a chart as an image

Built in email functionality

Data for a good range of international markets and commodities.

In saying that, there were a number of features that I haven’t been able to locate (doesn’t mean they don’t exist – I have a history of not being able to find the butter in the refrigerator even though it’s right in front me me).

One such missing feature is the ability to customize chart axis extents. For example, I often have charts that have one time period with an extremely anomalous volume spike that results in the maximum value on the volume scale being very high. This makes is very difficult to analyse volume across the rest of the chart as typical volume values barely register on the scale. It’s a small gripe, but an annoying one nonetheless.

One of my favorite features is the stock screener. Incredible Charts has a comprehensive list of parameters available to create your very own stock screens which can be used to identify stocks that are at a good buying opportunity. It’s a function I use multiple times a week and I can contribute a large number of my winning trades to this function alone.

It’s relatively easy to navigate and the screen creation process is pretty self explanatory. The screen shot below should give you an idea of how it all works. You can save your scan parameters so that you can easily re-load and run your favorite scans over and over. It’s also easy to switch between the scan page and your charts using a hotkey.

Screen shot of of the Incredible Charts stock screening function

Unfortunately the free version only allows for 5 stock results per scan to show up. It’s for this main reason that I upgraded to the premium version which allows for unlimited results to display.

The other main benefits of going premium include 20 minute delayed data (as opposed to having to wait until midnight for data to update) and unlimited use of the premium indicators (mainly the “Twiggs” series of money flow and momentum indicators).

Support

I have only had to use the support feature once – when I was trying to find a fix for the freezing issue when saving charts as an image. I received a reasonably timely response from an “actual person”, although at the time of writing, the problem had still not been resolved.

It’s always nice to be able to get in contact with an actual human being – dealing with automated or electronic responses is one of the things I truly hate about a lot of support systems, so Incredible Charts scores highly in this department for me.

Overall I would describe the support system as adequate, and would give Incredible Charts a higher score for support had a solution to my problem been found in a more timely manner.

Price

This is obviusly one of the key “selling” points – You can get the vast majority of features completely free. For those that are occasional users of a charting software, Incredible Charts will be more than adequate.

The fact that the basic version is free means it’s a great option for those looking to dip their toes into the world of charting for the first time – there is no risk of laying down some hard earned cash, only to realize 6 months down the track that you barely use it.

If you’re after a little bit more than the bare basics I would consider purchasing the premium version, which essentially unlocks a handful of features such as premium technical indicators, 20 minute delayed data and unlimited stock scan results.

The price for the premium service ranges from $US10-$20/month depending on which global markets you want data for – hardly breaking the bank. Another great thing to remember is that if you’re a trader you can deduct these costs from your income come tax time.

Summary

Overall, Incredible Charts is a great piece of stock charting software for beginners to the stock charting space. This is largely because of a combination of its price (free for the basic version) and relatively comprehensive list of features.

It’s interface is a little outdated and there are a few glitches, but overall the program performs reasonably well and is relatively intuitive to use.

I’d recommend Incredible charts for anyone who needs charting software on a budget.

Disclaimer:

I have no affiliation with Incredible Charts and I will not recieve any monetary reward should you choose to download Incredible Charts through the link provided in my review.

My review is based on my personal experience with the software, and program performance may differ across different operating systems and on different hardware (computers).

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There are 12 Comments.

Just signed up to your website. Found you through HC in Oz. Very impressed.
Am actually invested in a few stocks you’re familiar with. AJX, LWP and watching DUO

Reading your review of Incredible Charts I wonder if you consider it to be much better then say those supplied through say ETrade (my broker).
Specifically, though, I’m thinking of the 20 min time delay. What is this reduced to with the premium service?

Hi Peter, glad you enjoy the site and have found it useful. I’m very bullish on both AJX and LWP and as for DUO…I’m hoping something comes of it and I can make back some of my losses!

As for incredible charts, it all depends on what you’re doing. If you’re more short term trading (i.e. a few days to weeks) and want to annotate charts, and have those annotations saved so they are there when you next load up the charts, I’d recommend going with Incredible charts.

The time delay is actually 20 mins if you buy the premium service, the free version updates at midnight, therefore it’s not suitable if you’re specifically “day trading” on 1-20min time frames. I use just CommSecs IRESS platform for that, as buying software with a live data feed can get very pricey. I haven’t used eTrade so can’t really comment on that sorry.

Hi Sam, congrats on the site mate. Honest and humble and helpful! I highly value your contributions on HC so came to check it out.

Apologise if you’ve shared this elsewhere; understand if you’re not keen to share details. But my question is – what are your parameters for stock screens on incredible charts? I’m not on any of the same stocks as you but definitely in the same area of small caps. (Hopefully we’ll be on the same tickers soon). Any details you’d like to share on your standard indicators would be much appreciated also. I’ve read through everything on Incredible Charts website and there’s some great stuff – just too many parameters to play with and I get confused.

Peter it’s definitely worth $20/month for premium… any live data platforms are crazy expensive, I think it’s worth taking the 20min delay and just use your E-trade depth for fully live action. And to not have to wait until midnight, screen as many stocks as you like – totally worth $20/month.

Thanks Sam, your time and honesty and effort much appreciated. Keep it up!

Some people love to get technical and complicated with their filters, but I personally like to keep them simple and usually employ no more than 3 parameters for any one scan.

The scan I’m using most at the moment filters for volatility (3 month max 10%), volume (at least 2 times the 50 day EMA in the past 15 trading days) and a TMF crossover within the last 5 days. I use this to find stocks that have formed a basing pattern after a big decline and are showing hidden signs of accumulation without having run yet.

Of the stocks that come up in the scan, probably less than 10% are actually worth looking further into, so it takes a bit of time to flick through all the results. It’s worth it though if you’ve got the time.

I will often check MACD, but I don’t put a lot of reliance on it. It’s more useful for trading mid to large caps in my opinion and as you’re probably aware, I play more at the spec end of the game. I do use it for stocks like AJX (which I’d almost call a mid cap now) where you see more typical trading patterns playing out.

One thing I’m getting more into is action/reaction lines. I’ll probably start posting more charts with these on them soon. Have a read up if you have the time. Seems like “hocus pocus” but you’d be surprised how often they play out – a bit like fib levels really.

excellent review of Incredible Charts. thank you.
I have a couple of Q’s and would appreciate your consideration.
1. does IC support a coding feature (such as easy language etc) that enables users to code their own indicators?
2. if the answer to 1 is yes !! will the software support a recursive calculation (whereby a variable can be redefined or recalculated in the next iteration of a for loop). presently I code some indicators in excel vba – but its a slog having to switch between excel and my current charting package (which does permit coding user indicators BUT does not permit redefinition of a variable in a loop).
3. what markets are supported? ASX, NYSE , FTSE etc. or is that available at extra cost?

I have looked thru the IC web site and I am impressed with the coverage and level of explanations (the tutorials are excellent).

I must admit, it sounds as though you are a far more advanced chartist than I. I don’t do any of my own coding so I can’t answer your question as I’ve never looked for that functionality – sorry. Given it’s a “free” piece of software, I doubt it has that level of functionality however.

As to your third question, they have almost all major global markets, including all those you mentioned, so very good in that regards.